This Week on the Peak

My name is Cara Madden and I will be starting my second year as Secretary of the Board in August.

This past year was my first year on the Board and I really enjoyed working with such a positive and dedicated group of people. I have to say though, I got a bit more than I bargained for when I first agreed to serve! Losing our DRE and our Minister at just about the same time and dealing with some serious budget issues was not something I expected to be dealing with as a new Board member! We spent a lot of hours in Board meetings discussing and coming up with plans to support the congregation through these challenges. I am proud of the hard work we did as a Board (along with LOTS of help and input from other members!) and I am proud of the hard work we put in as a congregation as a whole. It was a wonderful reminder for me of an important life lesson – we don’t always get to choose what happens to us in this life, but we do get to choose how we respond.

I feel incredibly grateful for this community that always seems to choose to respond to challenges with love, passion, and vision. Being a member of MPUUC has made me a better person. When I think of all the amazing things I have witnessed, participated in, and received as being a part of this community it motivates me to work harder to share our congregation with other people in the Bay Area! I am excited to be serving on the Board next year as we work to find more and more ways to reach out into the community and engage.

You may not see me and my boys at Sunday services very often during the summer – our summer days are spent mostly at the beach and at my son’s baseball games. But, come August, I will hopefully be rested and ready to continue our work together!

Cara Madden

This Sunday’s Service:

Dispatches from Decade 8Frontline on the Path to [R]evolution

About midway into my eighth decade, I have learned a thing or two. Part of our role, once we have become Elders, is to share some of that. This is my offering: learnings from racial//social//climate justice, personal transformation, and the joys and trauma of a longish life.

Leading the service will be
Rev. Kurt A. Kuhwald and Worship Associate Paul K. Davis. Music will be provided by Eric Niessner.

Common Read Book Discussion Sign Ups!

Every year the UUA names a Common Read and provides a guide so congregations can have group discussions of the book. We have not had a discussion of the 2016-17 Common Read at Mission Peak as of yet. It is the topic of the sermon on July 30. Already the UUA has announced the Common Read for 2017/18, and they announced not one, but two books worthy of discussion across the Association. A Common Read can build community in our congregation and our movement by giving diverse people a shared experience, shared language, and a basis for deep, meaningful conversations.
Let’s get reading! If 5 or more order a book we can obtain a group discount. Sign up after the services or contact Allysson McDonald allyssonmcdonald@gmail.com to participate in the discussion of one or more of these powerful books this fall:

The Third Reconstruction, by Rev. William J. Barber, offers helpful, practical guidance for engaging with justice movements born in response to local experiences of larger injustices. Drawing on the prophetic traditions of the Jewish and Christian scriptures, while making room for other sources of truth, the book challenges us to ground our justice work in moral dissent, even when there is no reasonable expectation of political success, and to do the hard work of coalition building in a society that is fractured and polarized.

Centering: Navigating Race, Authenticity, and Power in Ministry
, edited by Mitra Rahnema (Skinner House, 2017), centers the stories, analysis, and insights of a number of Unitarian Universalist religious leaders of color as they explore how racial identity is made both visible and invisible in Unitarian Universalist communities.

Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want, by Frances Moore Lappé and Adam Eichen, (Beacon Press, September 2017) lifts up the importance of democracy itself. It examines the anti-democracy movement that led to the Trump presidency, then offers a vision and call to action to save the democracy we thought we had and to take our civic life to a place it has never been.

We Need More Campers!!!

We need more of you to join us for our annual camping trip!! This year we will be camping
July 28-30 at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in Glen Ellen. If you are new to camping or this is your first time camping with kids – this is a great way to give it a try. We’ve got veteran campers with lots of gear to loan and it’s always easier to camp with others and share the set-up, take down, cooking, and clean-up duties. It’s a beautiful location (wine country anyone?) and a ton of fun. We just need more people to sign up. Feel free to bring family and friends with you. Dogs are allowed. The cost is $10 per person or $25 per family. If cost is an issue we can work around it. If you’re interested in signing up or have any questions, please find Jen King after the service on July 23 or contact her at 510-299-2825 orjenking@alumnae.mtholyoke.edu.

Fundraiser

Join the MPUUC Community for lunch or dinner at The Counter in Fremont on
Thursday August 17th. Bring in our flyer and 20% of your bill will be donated to MPUUC. Clickhere for flyer.